About

Imagine If You Did Chores for Your Grandma is a phrasal template inspired by a tweet by former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in which he mischaracterizes tax law.

Origin

On January 15th, 2019, former Governor Scott Walker tweeted,^[1] "Explaining tax rates before Reagan to 5th graders: 'Imagine if you did chores for your grandma and she gave you $10. When you got home, your parents took $7 from you.' The students said: 'That’s not fair!' Even 5th graders get it." The tweet received more than 4,000 retweets, 20,000 likes and 18,000 comments.

Spread

The tweet was widely mocked online as many noted Walker's lack of understanding of the tax rate. Author Michael Shermer tweeted,^[2] "This is NOT how pre-Reagan progressive tax rate works @ScottWalker I can't believe you made it this far thinking that, for example, a 70% tax rate means someone making $1000 a month takes home only $300." The tweet received more than 360 retweets and 1,700 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Others used the introductory clause "imagine if you did chores for your grandma" as a means of criticizing Walker's claim. Twitter^[3] user @wes_chu tweeted, "Imagine if you did your chores for your grandma and she gave you $10,000,010. When you got home your parents took $7 from you. (assuming you pay the regular tax rate for the first $10M)." The tweet received more than 525 retweets and 2,700 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted,^[4] "Explaining marginal taxes to a far-right former Governor: Imagine if you did chores for abuela & she gave you $10. When you got home, you got to keep it, because it’s only $10. Then we taxed the billionaire in town because he’s making tons of money underpaying the townspeople." The tweet received more than 40,000 retweets and 173,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Twitter^[5] user @dianneanderson explained the 70% tax rate in a series of tweets. They wrote, "okay so a lot of (rich, white) folks are freaking out about what a 70% tax rate on the wealthy would look like and they’re scared about it and shit (even though it’s literally what rich baby boomers already dealt with)." The introductory tweet received more than 34,000 retweets and 80,000 likes (thread below).

Twitter^[6] published a Moments page on the debate.

Various Examples

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External References